Expert: True Color of Lu Xun
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Editor’s Notes: Chen Suhan, an expert on Lu Xun and deputy curator of Beijing Lu Xun Museum, visited Hangzhou and gave a lecture in the fall of 2011. We were honored to have him talk about Lu Xun in an exclusive interview during his brief stay in Hangzhou. The following is a summary of his interview with us.
In addition to the real Lu Xun in history, there has been Lu Xun painted red and gray respectively over the past decades. The red image has nothing to do with the revolutionary spirit of the great thinker and writer of the 20th century China. It is about deification and sublimation of Lu Xun. This artificial dressing occurred before the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and became wanton during the chaotic decade. Thus painted, Lu Xun served as a symbol of absolute political correctness and a tool for a utilitarian purpose or a policy. On the other side, while getting Lu Xun off the altar, some people have painted a picture of Lu Xun in gray. In this gray picture, Lu Xun is a loving husband and father, an affable old man with a sense of humor, a man who lives in a spacious house and enjoys delicate food and loves Hollywood films.
It would be pointless to talk about Lu Xun if one deliberately disregards his uniqueness, distinction, transcendence and if one focuses on his conventionality, worldliness and limits. Viewing Lu Xun in this oblique light and playing up the negative side of Lu Xun would definitely distort Lu Xun and negate his contribution to Chinese culture.
So what is the true color of lu xun?
Lu Xun is first of all a master of culture with a free spirit. Figuratively he can be compared to a heavenly horse galloping away without any restraint across cosmos. The free spirit equals the much sought after creativity of today. In Lu Xun’s own words, the spirit means breaking away from tradition and convention in an uncompromising manner. Lu Xun’s literary works embody this spirit perfectly. “A Madman’s Diary,” his first short story in vernacular in 1918, is more than an imitation of Gogol’s namesake narration. It goes beyond the sympathy with an ordinary person in suffering. The story blasts the man-eat-man ethics of the feudal time. In the 1910s and 1920s, Lu Xun was regarded as a pioneer in the New Culture movement. His short stories broke new grounds and many young writers followed.
Lu Xun’s creativity can also be seen in his academic studies. While writing a history of fictions of the ancient China, he introduced sociology and psychology of the west into his discussion while following the methodology of textual research established and perfected in the Qing Dynasty. The history offered new angles to view the past literature. He introduced woodcut into China and promoted it with heart and soul.
Lu Xun is a thinker who expresses himself in literature. Such a man of letter is rare in modern Chinese literature. There have been numerous books and papers published on Lu Xun’s ideas on literature, aesthetics, philosophy, religion, education and science. The outstanding feature of his thought is humanism. Lu Xun deconstructs the negative side of the Chinese characteristics: the yen for an official career, the infighting, the rubberneck curiosity for evil things, and bad memory of historical lessons. Lu Xun also suggests building a new national personality.
Lu Xun is a fighter. He crusades for democracy with pen as weapon. He thinks China teems with advisors, onlookers, and pragmatists, but China never boasts a great group of fighters who should be our national backbone. In the eye of Lu Xun, a fighter should have a clear-cut objective, a clear sense of right and wrong, a man of tactics and strategy. Through writing, Lu Xun places the responsibility on his shoulder for saving the nation. He never believes in the society of the time where art for humanity could survive. Nor does he believe artists and writers can stay away from human sufferings. He emphasizes the combativeness of literature.
In his letters to Xu Guangping, who used to be his student and later his wife, Lu Xun talked about the purpose of his life: he lived not merely for those he loved. He lived for combating his enemies, in a bid to make them regrets.
The year 2011 marks the 130 anniversary of the birthday of Lu Xun and the 75th anniversary of his death. Lu Xun says in his will: “Forget me and live your life.” If Lu Xun’s words and deeds answer the needs of the society and the times, these words and deeds should be part of our everyday life and memory. His words should live forever like a seed that germinates, grows, puts roots down, and bear new seeds. This is the historical fate of Lu Xun’s literary legacy.